Rwanda - Summer Updates - July 2018

Rwanda - Summer Updates - July 2018

After a long and heavy rainy season, the dry season is officially here. This means that the kids are out of school, and that our Kumva Rwanda gathering has already taken place! At Kumva, we celebrated the 10 year anniversary of our work.

Kumva Gathering in Rwanda

Kumva in Kinyarwanda means “to listen.” Kumva has acted as an every other year gathering for our work in Rwanda. It has become more than a conference or meeting, it is a family-reunion of partners, friends, family, and old team-mates. This year Kumva was hosted here in Rwanda. We had originally anticipated that maybe we could get 30 people to come and visit, but by the time of the conference we had almost 70 visitors fly in from America in order to participate!

I, Caleb, really cannot find words to describe how well it went. Months of preparation and logistical planning culminated in an event that I got to participate in as an “inside-outsider.” Hearing the stories and testimonies of lives changed had me in tears on multiple occasions. I found myself proud and humbled that we would get to walk along this path of healing and restoration with such amazing people.

Letter from ATN about Kumva

We at ATN wanted to take the time to say thank you. We cannot express how encouraging the Kumva gathering was for all of us here in Rwanda. Kumva was more than a conference or presentation. It was a family reunion for those who have been involved in the work in Rwanda. We have a proverb in Africa saying that to raise a child takes a village. This is the same way for the Kingdom work, it takes us all to participate.

Kumva has left us all with a deep commitment and affirmation to this Kingdom work. A few quotes from some of our teammates here:

"Kumva made me realize that we (ATN) have a lot more potential because the mission is bigger than ATN. There is still much work to do!" - Bunani

"Usually the cook isn't allowed to give complements on the meal they've cooked, but Kumva was so good that we, as the hosts, can't help but comment on how great it was" - Charlotte

"It was a taste of heaven." - from the Kibungo farmers in reference to Americans and Rwandans sitting as equals together in their fields